Ballots Quotes - Page 5

• One of the nuisances of the ballot is that when the oracle has spoken you never know what it means.

  Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

  Mean, Nuisance, Oracles

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• Journalism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it is the day-by-day, between-elections propaganda, whereby the minds of the people are kept in a state of acquiescence, so that when the crisis of an election comes, they go to the polls and cast their ballots for either one of the two candidates of their exploiters.

  Upton Sinclair

  Two, People, Political

  Upton Sinclair (2015). “The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism”, p.236, Open Road Media

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• Demand the ballot as the undeniable right of every man who is called to the poll, and take special care that the old constitutional rule and principle, by which majorities alone shall decide in Parliamentary elections, shall not be violated.

  John Bright

  Men, Special, Majority

  John Bright, H. J. Leech (1885). “The Public Letters of John Bright”, London : S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington

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• Our 'pathway' is straight to the ballot box, with no variableness nor shadow of turning.

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton

  Shadow, Pathways, Women's Suffrage

  Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ann Dexter Gordon, Susan Brownell Anthony (2000). “The Selected Papers of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: Against an aristocracy of sex, 1866 to 1873”, p.126, Rutgers University Press

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• So what were Europeans telling their leaders? The general message was perfectly summed up by the cartoonist Chappatte, who drew a group of protesters holding up a placard shouting "Unhappy" - and one of their number shouting through a megaphone into the ballot box. There are 28 member states and 28 varieties of Unhappy.

  Timothy Garton Ash

  Numbers, Leader, Unhappy

  "Europe: the continent for every type of unhappy". www.theguardian.com. May 26, 2014.

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• Christians living in a democracy should always vote if they can. If they cannot in conscience bring themselves to vote for any of the candidates on offer (in the UK quite often there are several candidates for a parliamentary seat) they might consider deliberately spoiling the ballot paper as a sad protest which still says 'but I believe in being involved'.

  N. T. Wright

  Christian, Believe, Democracy

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• I am very worried about this concentration of power, and it's not only because of Erdogan. We have the ballot box, but we don't have the culture of democracy. The government says: You see, we have the majority, we're entitled to do anything we want. But that's not democracy, that's majoritarianism.

  Elif Safak

  Government, Democracy, Majority

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• What's wrong with leading the way? We've played that role before, after all. We gave the world the secret ballot... that did so much to raise living standards and improve conditions for workers worldwide. We were a leader in extending to women the right to vote. We were barely a nation when we set the bar for bravery and sacrifice by common soldiers in foreign wars. We grew up out of racism and misogyny and homophobia to become a mostly tolerant, successful multicultural society. We did these great things because we know we are in it together. It is our core value as Australians.

  Geraldine Brooks

  Leadership, War, Successful

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• When and under what conditions is the black man to have a free ballot? When is he in fact to have those full civil rights which have so long been his in law?

  Benjamin Harrison

  Men, Rights, Law

  Benjamin Harrison (1893). “Public Papers and Addresses of Benjamin Harrison: Twenty -third President of the United States. March 4, 1889, to March 4, 1893”

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• These ballot initiatives remind us that America is the land where people are free to dream whatever they want, so long as that dream doesn't make Midwesterners feel icky!

  Lewis Black

  Dream, Land, America

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• When I'm up for an award, there are usually two or three other things on the ballot that I like better than my own fiction.

  Kelly Link

  Awards, Two, Three

  Interview with Maggie Slater, www.apex-magazine.com. July 2, 2013.

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• The right to participate in the choice of representatives for Congress includes, as we have said, the right to cast a ballot and to have it counted at the general election whether for the successful candidate or not.

  Harlan F. Stone

  Successful, Choices, Election

  United States v. Classic, 313 U.S. 299, (318), 1941.

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• A federal bailout would spare California from having to make spending cuts needed to bring its budget into balance. The matter has become urgent since California voters rejected several tax-hiking ballot initiatives. Rather than taking the vote as a signal to dramatically curtail spending, the state turned to the feds. If they get a free pass, the politicians can avoid fixing any of their past mistakes or preparing California for the future.

  Peter Schiff

  Mistake, Cutting, Past

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• Being on the ballot is a lot different than getting in.

  Orel Hershiser

  Different

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• With regard to the ballot, it is worthy of remark that no meeting has been held in favour of Reform at which the ballot has not been strongly insisted upon.

  John Bright

  Reform, Favour, Worthy

  John Bright, H. J. Leech (1885). “The Public Letters of John Bright”, London : S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington

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• Well, it all began with Democracy. Before we had the vote all the power was in the hands of rich people. If you had money you could get health care, education, look after yourself when you were old, and what democracy did was to give the poor the vote and it moved power from the marketplace to the polling station, from the wallet...to the ballot.

  Tony Benn

  Hands, Giving, People

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• Too many of us dissipate our energy by being 'for all good causes,' attending meetings and passing resolutions, organizing and presenting petitions — all this effort to change others, when if we really got down to it we could use this energy to change ourselves… We become tired radicals because we use our weakest weapon: the ballot box, where we are always outnumbered, and refuse to use our strongest weapon: spiritual power.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Spiritual, Tired, Effort

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.249, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• A Christian Anarchist does not depend on bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused and dying world.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Christian, Confused, Men

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.19, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world.

  Ammon Hennacy

  Christian, Confused, Men

  Ammon Hennacy (2010). “The Book of Ammon”, p.19, Wipf and Stock Publishers

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• Those who have the immense dishonesty to fight with a ballot box in one hand and a rifle in the other have no place in democratic politics.

  Neil Kinnock

  Fighting, Hands, Rifles

  Speech in the House of Commons, October 23, 1986.

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• Woman stock is rising in the market. I shall not live to see women vote, but I'll come and rap on the ballot box.

  Lydia M. Child

  Rap, Justice, Diversity

  Letter to Sarah Shaw, 1856.

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• If I can get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states and be allowed into the debates, I'd not only run, I'd win.

  Jesse Ventura

  Running, Winning, Presidential

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• I have come to see more and more that one of the most decisive steps that the Negro can take is that little walk to the voting booth. That is an important step. We've got to gain the ballot, and through that gain, political power.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Political, Voting, Important

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• Doubtless the most miserable of men, under the most oppressive government in the world, if allowed the ballot, would use it, if they could see any chance of thereby ameliorating their condition.

  Lysander Spooner

  Men, Use, World

  Lysander Spooner (1867). “No Treason: No. 1-”

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• Meet the sun every morning as if it could cast a ballot.

  Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.

  Nature, Morning, Sun

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